Nocturne in Black and Gold, Essay Example

James McNeill Whistler, writing in his 1890 book The Gentle Art of Making Enemies noted that “To say of a picture, as if often said in its praise, that is shows great and earnest labor, is to say that it is incomplete and unfit for view”.  Whistler was at the heart of the Aesthetic Movement which was sweeping through Europe in the late 19^th century.  His painting, “Nocturne in Black and Gold”, epitomizes both the movement itself and the reaction of a portion of the public against that movement.

Aesthetics as the backdrop for nocturne in black and gold

The Aesthetic Movement of 19^th century Europe would have been a heady time to be alive: Walter Pater’s Renaissance had been published only two years before “Nocturne in Black and Gold” was painted, and his sensuous approach to art was quickly replacing the somewhat dull didacticism of art critics like Ruskin and Arnold, who held that the purpose of art was to morally elevate the viewer.  In contrast, Pater and his devotees worshipped the idea of “art for art’s sake”, that aesthetic values were far more important in art than moral ones.

Whistler was very much a part of this movement:  he was friends with many of the Pre-Raphaelites, notably Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and also with one of Britain’s premiere advocates of the Aesthetic Movement, Oscar Wilde.   When he lived in Paris, the circle he ran in included the likes of Courbet, Legros and Manet; it also included Charles Baudelaire, perhaps the greatest of the French Symbolist poets also part of the larger Aesthetic Movement. These influences make themselves known in his works, including the painting under discussion.

Nocturne in black and gold

“Nocturne in Black and Gold” was painted in 1875, a mere two years after Walter Pater praised the ideal of the “hard, gem-like flame” of aestheticism.  This is part of a long-running “Nocturne” series that Whistler had done in different parts of London, including Chelsea and the Battersea Bridge.  The painting depicts a lone figure standing at the water’s edge. It is night, and the sky and river are painted in luscious shades of bottle green and dark blue-gray and across the water, the viewer sees brilliant spatters of gold from the falling rocket light up the sky and reflect in the river itself.  It is a beautiful painting, almost impressionistic in its dependency on the use of light, and I think it is a good representation of “avant garde” work of its time.  It was part of an exhibition in 1877 at the Grosvenor Gallery which also featured the works of artists like Burne-Jones.

I chose this painting for the paper not only because I believe it is a very representative work of its day, but also because it was the cause of the infamous Ruskin trial.  In 1877, Whistler sued John Ruskin, the art critic, for Ruskin’s denunciation of the painting; Ruskin had seen the Grosvenor Gallery exhibition and while he praised Burne-Jones, he wrote scathingly of Whistler, in his publication Fors Clavigera: “I have seen and heard much of Cockney impudence, but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask 200 guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face”.  Whistler brought him to court for libel, but although he won the case, the court granted him a settlement of only a farthing and the court costs associated with the trial actually led to Whistler going bankrupt in 1879.  The trial was in many ways very symptomatic of the reaction that much of the public was having against experimental art and the new aesthetic that was influencing every aspect of cultural life: art, writing, music, even decorating.  It seems that some portion of the populace – including Ruskin, apparently – were simply not ready to accept the new styles of painting that were being experimented with by the leading artists of the day.  I think it is interesting to note, however, that two of his most famous paintings, Symphony in White, No. 1: “The White Girl” and “Arrangement in Gray and Black No. 1: Portrait of the Artist’s Mother” were highly criticized at the time but are now so well-known that they remain easily recognizable to this day, even by those who do not know much about art history.  Indeed, Whistler’s Mother seems almost as iconic as Munch’s The Scream.

I wonder, when Whistler wrote that a painting which showed earnest work was unfit for viewing, if he has this particular piece in mind.  It certainly has a tremendous feel of spontaneity and movement to it: you can practically see the lights from the rocket falling across the sky into the water.  At the Ruskin trial, one of the questions asked involved how long it took for Whistler to paint this Nocturne and he admitted he could “knock one off possibly in the couple of days – one day to do the work and another to finish it”.  The gold-splattered sky reminds me a little of some of Pollack’s much later work, so perhaps, after all, Ruskin’s accusation of  paint flinging was not so very far off the mark.

Conclusion

The “Nocturne in Black and Gold” is a lovely and lively painting in Whistler’s Nocturne series and, I believe, very indicative of the kind of experiments with color and form that artists like Whistler were work conducting during that time.  However, the controversy surrounding this particular painting – and the trial which ensued over it – is also indicative of a public who could not or would not accept such radically different forms of art, or an aesthetic which was so very different from the traditional ones of its day.